...and the rest of the story

Okay, I shelled out the $25 to upgrade my account on Flickr and get unlimited uploads...enjoy the rest of the pictures not posted on the blog today.

Through the lens of Hollan

Bob scanning an open field for a pass.

Todd watching Tim haul one in...it's Tim, you'll just have to trust me.

Bridgette lops off Rodney's head.

This is where Hollan just missed Rodney being horizontal in the air.

Bob & Bill watch intently as the disc comes down.

Leroy sprinting away from Phil.

Calling on Webster

Posted by Bill

We had our third great game of the week yesterday and while I’m at it I just want to welcome back out a couple people who have played sporadically with the Buzzards in the past and have been back out this week…Steve & Bridgette, great to see you both back out there!

“Skeptically humorous”…in case any of you were still wondering about the accusation flung about in the email exchange yesterday prior to the game. That’s what sardonic means and what my comments were labeled for questioning the intentions of some of the Buzzards for wanting to know how many were coming out to play yesterday. I apologize if I offended anybody by questioning their devotion to duty (extra points for working in a core value today).

Continuing to thumb through the BPUC vocabulary we stumbled across prostate (well, not literally) but as you’ll see in one picture below, Bridgette may have been on her way there with Todd if she’d taken any more clothes off him, prostrate which is what Rodney was after his fabulous lay out catch yesterday, and redundant possessive which happens with a misplaced apostrophe or when you watch the seagulls on “Finding Nemo” “mine, mine, mine, mine, mine”!

At any rate, we had 9 today as Bridgette did finally get out on the field though apparently fielding an important call on her cell as she tried to decide which color pinnie to wear and eventually joined Phil, Bob, Tim & Steve on the gold side. I saddled Todd with Rodney and myself again but also gave him Leroy hoping to find some sort of balance of speed. Who knew Rodney and I would actually both run a few times on the same play? What a pleasant surprise!

Hollan came out again and snapped off some more fine photography as you’ll see, though in a couple instances he may have missed the best action by a couple seconds either right before or right after it happened.

Todd had a great line yesterday by the way. After Leroy could not adjust to a pass in the end zone and pointed to where he wanted it to have actually been thrown, Todd remarked “Hey, if I could put the plate where I wanted all the time…” I’m not sure what the follow up was to the “If/then” statement but my own take is that it would be a lot less interesting.

If you check out the Flickr Ultimate Action Shots you’ll notice people making great leaps and lay outs for passes partly because the disc doesn’t always go where we want it and the receiver, occasionally needs to make a play…go get the plate!!!!!

Going to start getting a little hotter out this afternoon but we should be able to beat the 90’s by our game time. See you out there.




Bill chasing one down with Steve in pursuit.

Now this is tight D, Bridgette is literally undressing Todd as he tries to get off a throw.

More interesting D - Leroy high kicking on Phil.

Steve posting up Rodney.

MOB & SOTG Awards

posted by Bill

I may have forgotten to mention...to the wide audience our May award winners:

MOB (Most Outstading Buzzard) - Bob
SOTG (Spirit of the Game) - Bryan

Bryan was presented his award by a small contingent of the EXCOM (me, Todd & Phil) in his cube in the presence of an ungodly number of cadets wandering around.

Bob was presented his award standing naked in the locker room. We decided to forgo the photo op for that one.

And voting is open for June. Please email me with your nominations.

...or are you just happy to see me?

Posted by Bill

“Ultimate is a non-contact sport” I had to remind myself yesterday after getting body blocked to the ground by Phil and hearing Frank cheer in the background…

“Yea! Great move man!”

To be fair, there was a little of that big brother slips in the first shot, little brother’s retaliation is more dramatic and the only thing seen by the parents but geez Phil!!!!

Welcome back humidity! Did we mention, we didn’t really miss you though? After last week’s comparatively mild temperatures and low humidity, we were reminded yesterday that summer, has in fact, begun. It really wasn’t that hot yesterday but as the cliché goes “that ain’t what kills ya.”

#1 fan (he's got the t-shirt to prove it), and most active member of the disabled list, Hollan, was out on the field again yesterday taking some shots with my camera, fully charged on batteries this time. He remarked though that it was difficult to get good shots with the nice short passing game that the gold team was using yesterday. Frank, Phil, Bob & Leroy abandoned the long game after Leroy had some “tracking” issues on a couple discs up in the air.

“I hate this thing!” he said, shaking the orange 175g’s after a fumble in the end zone.

“Well” Phil said, later in the locker room “you know it’s not shaped like most things”. What Phil, you mean like plates & tires?

“Like most other sports gear” Phil clarified, “like basketballs, footballs, baseballs, golf balls”.

Ah, you’re right. Well, that’s because it’s not like most other sports. Did I mention Ultimate is non-contact? And self-officiated?

Exhibit A ~ Todd called a foul on himself (which even technically you can’t do, the person being fouled needs to call it) but he felt so bad about sending Leroy tumbling across the end zone line on a pass the clearly was going to be out of reach anyway. Well SOTG points for Todd, I thought it was the right call. It was a foul and you never know when somebody is going to make that “catching the disc in the air on the way out of the end zone tossing it back in for a score” play.

I put the extra guy on the green team yesterday because I had stuck Todd with myself, Rodney, Tim, & Tom. Now Tim is the youngest and swiftest of that foursome which is all you need to know about it because let’s face it, he hasn’t exactly shown “breakaway speed” out there yet. But lo and behold all four of us sprinted to the end zone on a couple occasions for scores. “I like the Monday legs” Todd observed with pleasant surprise.

There were a couple nice deflections caught for scores yesterday. Bob, to nobody’s surprise had one of them. You can’t let that guy keep circling around a disc like a Buzzard around roadkill. He’s going to grab hold of it eventually. And Leroy after a couple frustrating drops snagged one that I had managed to misdirect. Bob also made a nice play coming around Rodney on the end zone line and reaching in front of him to take away what should have been an interception. Rodney remarked he just needed a little refresher lesson on why you should come to the disc.

You’ll see a good picture below of Bob homing in on Rodney and the disc with Tom and Leroy also in the muddle. Surprisingly, there was no contact on this play other than maybe the disc bouncing off Rodney.

Repeat after me, “Ultimate is a non-contact sport”.

We've reached the maximum upload on Flickr for the month so good thing July is right around the corner.

Really, there was no contact between bodies here...just the disc bouncing off Rodney.

Todd looking for an open cutter.

Frank getting vertical against Tom.

Me catching one in stride...which means I actually was striding.

Okay, I have no idea what's going on here.

Photos part III

For the rest of the photos, check out my Flickr site.

More Photos

Posted by Bill ~ Photos taken by Hollan



Bill ready to flick.

Dennis...a picture of concentration.






Frank is watching the wrong flying object.



Phil & Todd have both already run by this.





Conrad curling up to throw as Paul runs to his right.

Paul getting ready to throw.

/a

Todd reaches over the still-grounded Phil for this one.

Phil strolling into the game.

There is no way Rodney is coming down with this between "The Two Towers"...Todd & Frank.

Todd finds a passing lane between Bill & Rodney.

Ink's photo essay...

Posted by Bill

Last Thursday was a good game as we had 5’s and we had a good run but I was questioning the wisdom of playing on the same day that I’d be walking 18 holes later on with Todd & Bob. But it was such a great day and both the Ultimate and the golf were great. Never mind that I had gotten up at 0300 and didn’t get home until 2300…that’s a long day.

Thanks by the way to Hollan, who came out and napped by the tree while he took a few pictures. And here they are for your enjoyment.

Rodney sporting his new "Sheed" look.

There's no way this isn't a collision.

Conrad laying down on the job.

Bill jumping just a bit too soon as Todd waits patiently.

"Please come down so I don't have to jump."

Categories of new players...

Posted by Bill

It was nice to get some decent numbers back out on the field yesterday. We want to welcome out two new players, Leroy & Kevin and one returning player, Brook, who had been gone so long he had to get put back on the distribution list first.

Leroy reminded me of some of the other summer hires, interns and students we’ve had come play with us before… "young and can run”…Thanks for making some of us more “seasoned” players feel even older and slower. And speaking of feeling slower…playing with Dennis yesterday I found out after that amazing catch he made in the end zone where I thought he just misplayed it but found out he was really juking up the defender first before running behind him and falling down to catch it…anyway, Dennis, who most of you know has some good wheels when he’s running is doing so short one ACL…I’ve got two perfectly healthy ACLs and I don’t usually run that well.

Of course the other type of player knows you can run smarter, not harder and that would describe our other new addition, Kevin. I knew he had played before as we were marking up he was shouting out the number player he was taking, “I’ve got 6”, which most organized Ultimate players will recognize as him saying he had the 6th guy from the left . Of course most of the guys on the gold team yesterday had no idea what he was saying and asked for some sort of clarification “green shorts”, Kevin elaborated, not wanting to confuse anybody with the jumble of names he promised to remember, albeit, not with any particular faces. I knew I was going to enjoy playing with him when I heard him mention “I don’t need anybody to mark me when I don’t have the disc, I can do that myself”. Sorry, Kevin, hope I didn’t let out the secret to your elusiveness.

So Brook, how was the first game back in, uh, how many months? Feeling a little gassed? It was fairly humid yesterday until about two thirds of the way into the game when we were mercifully given some cloud cover and a breeze.

Hollan was playing some mad D yesterday…well, right up until he broke his heel. Okay, so we don’t know exactly if that’s what happened but his negative reply to the game this morning “because I’m on crutches and headed to Bethesda” didn’t sound good.

Rodney and I both seemed pleasantly surprised at the lack of contact from each other after the game yesterday but he seemed genuinely offended that I told him I’d have to use veto power on any selection of him for SOTG in June. Speaking of the Spirit…Bryan brought the SOTG trophy disc out to the field yesterday. I initially suspected he’d been through too many hazing ceremonies and thought he had to carry it around with him everywhere until it was awarded to somebody else but as it turns out, he’s winding down his last week with us before departing to the upper Midwest and wants me to keep it safe so he doesn’t forget and leave with it.

Conrad…how is it you’ll drop a disc in the wide open but when I’m marking you and am all over you and tipping the disc, you manage to come down with it?

I heard Bob mention that there were a lot of good handlers out yesterday…I’d have to agree. Whenever you’re playing with Eli, Todd, Brook, or Eric, you know if you can get yourself open that you’re likely to get a good pass at some point. Todd may have made the best one on the last point of the game yesterday…a full length huck for a score.

We managed to keep Bryan from diving for anything yesterday, hoping to preserve him for his marathon this weekend. Good luck!

Going to be another great weather day today but surprisingly only 4 people have responded so far this morning. Hollan, you’re excused, the rest of you????

Nothing to sneeze at!

posted by Bill

So I come in this morning to find out 3 Buzzards have transferred that were here at the beginning of last week, another is headed for the DL with some disc issues (pun intended but really not funny for him), and another is out today at the allergist (really, I couldn’t make this stuff up Phil). Another is on leave until the end of June and I suspect is on a honeymoon but I don’t know that for sure and since I wasn’t invited…

Fair winds to CaptK, Jason & Lon!

Anyway, so you’d think we might be a little short today on numbers right? Well, not quite. You misjudge the depth of the Buzzards roster. We had another, Brook, do his best Lazarus routine and he will be back on the field today. Hollan has also recruited one of the 6 interns in his office to come out. How do you get 6 interns in one office???!!!!! And apparently he’d already finished the projects they were hired to work on so they’re really getting paid to do nothing but he could only get one of them out on the field.

At any rate, Happy Belated Father’s Day to all you dads. If you’re not one and forgot to call yours yesterday, go ahead and call today. Trust me, he won’t mind it late. Better than not hearing from you at all.

I’ve been splashing around in my new Keens this past week. They perform fabulously in the river if anybody’s in the market for such footwear. I also think I could probably take them from the water straight to an Ultimate field if the need ever arose. They have a nice cushion to them and strap across the feet well. Plus, on those days in the fall and spring when we play on the field and it resembles a sponge, I’d be right in my element and I wouldn’t have deodorize my gym bag after particularly wet shoe days.

For you golfers out there…and I know there are several that read this…did you catch Tiger’s putt on 18 yesterday? This guy was playing injured and missed way more fairways than he hit and still was able to pull off that putt to send the U.S. Open to an 18-hole playoff today. Hard not to root for a guy named Rocco though, especially since he’s 45 (right Bob?) but man, the “Cat” came roaring back on that last hole right when it looked like he would lose his first ever major that he went into Sunday leading.

Speaking of exciting golf, I fired a 3 under on the Wii last night? Can you play this interactively with other people that own Wiis? Maybe that’s the way we can finally match up our schedules Todd? You guys need to go out and get one of these if you haven’t already.

Fore!

Surviving the oven...

Submitted by Bill

There is supposed to be a break in the weather today! After about 4 days of 100+ degrees heat indexes it’s going to be a relative “arctic” low 80’s today. The scorching weather had chased many away from the Ultimate field though I will give a big shout out to a few who actually rogered up for games the past two days….Tim, MattP, Bob & Eli. Thanks guys for being willing to go out in that “Africa-hot” weather to throw the disc around.

A few of us retreated to the volleyball courts the past two days. Todd was already a semi-regular out there but Bob, MattP & I took our questionable skills to the sand pit and actually held our own. They stuck all 3 of us on the same team on Monday and we actually won a couple of the games. And, truth be told, after about the 2nd game, when we were dripping sweat from every pore and taking a much needed water break, we confided in each other that we were glad we weren’t running on the Ultimate field. It’s not even officially summer yet after all but this weather has been crazy hot!

Today though, assuming I can shed a retirement ceremony early enough, I’m looking forward to getting back out in the cleats and run around chasing the disc. Wanted to say a fond farewell to CAPTKel as he was checking out early this week to transfer. Losing another great handler, fair winds!

I also will have the Most Outstanding Buzzard (“MOB”) and Spirit of the Game (SOTG) awards to present today so let’s get a great turnout for those out on the field today.

Pull!

First June posting...

I suppose a lot has happened since the last entry here. Just not much of it has had to do with Ultimate. We did have a game last Wednesday of 5 on 5 and played East-West for a change of pace. There was some good play. Hollan made a couple of great catches in the end zone right on the sidelines, Tim tripped over a puddle, there was talk of Rodney, Hollan, a cage match and thongs that I’m not sure I want to clearly remember and hopefully MattP has deleted all email evidence to any such conversation.

Some other things that are going on though that may or may not be worth blogging about… I’ve bought a new HD TV and a Wii. I’m pretty good at golf but my 9-year old niece knocked me out the other night in boxing. So with the HD TV thing…even if I don’t have an HD signal coming into my apartment, should I buy HD DVDs now or will it matter? What’s the next Wii game I should invest 5 “Hamiltons” on?

Now that Clinton has conceded the Democratic primary, we can be subjected to the media blitz that will be the presidential election. My question is “With gasoline hovering around $4 a gallon, would it be too much to ask for the Republican nominee for President to have some sort of energy policy idea on his ‘issues’ web page?”

The Celtics and Lakers are playing in the NBA finals again for the first time since 1987 and that may have been the last time I watched the NBA and took it seriously. And with games starting at 9pm and my alarm going off at 3am, I don’t see me watching a lot of this series either. Elsewhere in the sporting world, Big Brown failed to win The Triple Crown. Maybe he needed some of whatever Kasey Kahne has been running on the last month. It’s almost the all-star break and the Cubs are still in 1st place and the Oriole are still playing .500, there is a new baseball stadium open about 10 blocks from here and I still have watched a full inning of this sport yet this year.

One of the voices of sports that I remember growing up with, Jim McKay, of ABC’s Wide World of Sports…”the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”, died last week. Not to date myself too much but in the days of 3 networks, some fuzzy UHF channels, no sports talk radio, no anything.com, no blogs, and just you and your buddies trying to scrape up enough players for a game of tackle football on a cool November afternoon, we imagined Jim McKay calling out our names on one of his broadcasts and forever etching us in the image of sports lore. Rest in peace, sir.

Kung Fu Panda is my summer movie blockbuster? I think I’ll stick to my House, M.D. DVD reruns.

We may need an M.D. if we get to play today. The heat index is supposed to hit 104! Hoping to get an earlier game at 1100 to beat the triple digits but it’s still going to be HOT! Please drink water ahead of time and bring some with you if you’re playing.